Discover Magazine has a great, short piece on the connectivity of the blogosphere:
The blogosphere is the most explosive social network you’ll never see. Recent studies suggest that nearly 60 million blogs exist online, and about 175,000 more crop up daily (that’s about 2 every second). Even though the vast majority of blogs are either abandoned or isolated, many bloggers like to link to other Web sites. These links allow analysts to track trends in blogs and identify the most popular topics of data exchange. Social media expert Matthew Hurst recently collected link data for six weeks and produced this plot of the most active and interconnected parts of the blogosphere.
Link with incredible graphic. (Thanks, Techyum.)
And who’s at the center of this vast social network? Daily Kos, BoingBoing, Michelle Malkin, gadget freaks, porn lovers, and sports fanatics. Good grief. People who blog about religion and culture don’t even show up. Which doesn’t surprise me — bloggers in my tiny corner of the blogosphere don’t talk to one another much, we don’t link to one another’s posts, and basically we don’t exploit the potential of social connectivity that exists in the medium of blogging. To change that a little tiny bit, here are some links to the best blog posts I’ve read recently:
ck at Arbitrary Marks posts a thoughtful video commentary on women blogging without having to deal with stalkers and crazies (I’ve already commented over there, no need to repeat here): Link.
Will Shetterly is moving “It’s All One Thing” from Blogger over to Live Journal. He promises less religion, which probably means more science fiction. That works for me. I’m liking the new cat story: Link.
Jeremy at Voltage Gate provides links to dozens of bloggers who have bioblitzed over the past week. I’ve been following his links to some very cool ecosystems from Ontario to Panama, and enjoying citizen science in action: Link.
Abby at Children and Books has a great post about teaching, where one of the kids she’s teaching gets a complicated concept. Short as it is, this post is really sticking with me, and I’m still mulling it over: Link.
Dan, thanks for the linkage. The social connectivity thing is why I miss the Daily Scribe. If I had all kinds of time, I’d try to start something like that back up. Unfortunately, I also think those of us who blog about religion/culture/philosophy tend to be very busy, with just enough time to put down our thoughts.
But yeah, maybe I could start doing a weekly linkfest–every now and then I put up some links, but not regularly.
Hi Dan. I’m a big fan of the Street Prophets community. It’s geared towards liberals who are writing about religion and politics, although the posts often cover a wider range of religious topics. The other writers and readers there take the time to engage with one another, and the conversations there often bring together people of many faiths.